Author: pekandesigns

Amazon today rolled out an Alexa-enabled voice-powered shopping feature in India as the e-commerce giant looks for new ways to engage with customers in one of its key overseas markets. The American giant said the feature, currently rolling out to Android users, is available “primarily in English,” though it understands proper nouns and regional words […]

Citing sensitivities to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, dating app Tinder is canceling the international release of its apocalyptic-themed, in-app video series, “Swipe Night.” The company had planned to release the first season of the show to 10 new markets across Europe and Asia this quarter, in light of its recent success in boosting key app […]

Speedinvest, a seed-stage VC headquartered in Vienna with offices in London, Berlin, Munich and San Francisco, recently disclosed a new €190 million fund that brings the firm’s total assets under management to more than €400 million. Its remit remains largely the same: Speedinvest broadly targets fintech, deep tech, marketplaces, industrial tech, digital health and consumer […]

A leading civil liberties group is suing Homeland Security, claiming the agency is keeping the details of its airport face recognition program secret, which it says raises “profound civil liberties concerns.” The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in a New York federal court on Thursday, demanding that the agency turn over records to […]

Measurement firm Comscore announced this morning a partnership with Amazon-owned game-streaming site Twitch. The deal will see Comscore measuring video streaming activity across Twitch, including gaming and esports, as well as other audience viewing metrics. This will allow advertisers to get a better understanding of video viewing behavior on Twitch, which helps them in targeting […]

YC-backed Giveaway lets folks give away their unused or unnecessary items in a marketplace. Unlike other buy and sell or donation platforms, Giveaway uses a virtual currency on the platform to reward people for listing their products for free on the app. Users earn Karma coins each time they list an item on the website. […]

Amazon and others have raised awareness of how the in-store shopping experience can be sped up (and into the future) using computer vision to let a person pay for and take away items without ever interacting with a cashier, human or otherwise. Today, a startup is announcing funding for its own take on how to […]

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. A few weeks ago, Uber and Lyft, kicking bags of the 2019 stock market and regularly cited as examples of venture-backed excess, were back to fighting form. After encouraging Q3 2019 reports from both ride-hailing […]

Portland-based micromobility startup Ride Report just closed a $10 million round led by Unusual Ventures to better facilitate relationships between cities and operators. Ride Report works by monitoring micromobility vehicles across cities — currently 70 worldwide — to enable legislators to better understand the impact micromobility has on their respective cities. Ride Report, in partnership […]

Legionfarm, a YC-backed company, is looking to bring coaches to the competitive gaming world. Esports teams at the very top often have coaches, but the rest of the massive competitive gaming scene has to find a way to improve on their own, either via sheer time played or with creative new training platforms. There is […]